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Disillusionists series
The Disillusionists series, aka The Justine Jones: Disillusionist trilogy — by Carolyn Crane. Genres and Sub-Genres Romantic Urban fantasy Series Description or Overview Justine Jones has a secret. A hardcore hypochondriac, she’s convinced a blood vessel is about to burst in her brain. Then, out of the blue, a startlingly handsome man named Packard peers into Justine’s soul and invites her to join his private crime-fighting team. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime deal. With a little of Packard’s hands-on training, Justine can weaponize her neurosis, turning it outward on Midcity’s worst criminals, and finally get the freedom from fear she’s always craved. End of problem. ~ Goodreads Lead's Species * Human Trained to use innate emotion Primary Supe * High Caps (mages) What Sets it Apart * Narrative Type and Narrators * First person narrative from Justine Jones's perspective. Books in Series The Disillusionists Trilogy: #Mind Games (2010) #Double Cross (2010) #Head Rush (2011) ~ final book Shorts, Anthologies and Guides *2.5. "Kitten-tiger & the Monk" Wild & Steamy (2011) ~ ebook & Anthology *3.5. "Devil's Luck" (2012) ~ ebook Themes World Building Setting Midcity, USA — A fictional city located on the shore of Lake Michigan like an alternate Chicago or Milwaukee Places: * Supernatural Elements ✥ High Caps (mages), wizardry, sleepwalking cannibals, paranormal copycat violence, * Powers: telekinesis, telepathy, dream invasion, structural interface, psychological insight, memory revision, prognostication. Glossary: * High Caps: acronym for high capacity humans, each with a particular magical ability—can manifest any one of a number of psychic powers 'Groups & Organizations': * The Disillusionists: World In this world, people with magic (who would be called mages in other series) are called high caps (an acronym for high capacity humans), each with a particular magical ability and each tending to misuse his or her power. Individual high caps can manifest any one of a number of psychic powers, including telekinesis, telepathy, dream invasion, structural interface, psychological insight, memory revision, and prognostication. ~ From Fang-tastic Fiction ✥ One highcap, Sterling Packard, has the ability to understand any person’s psychological structure. Packard has assembled a team of humans with crippling psychological problems (e.g., alcoholism, gambling compulsion, depression, rage, extreme angst), and he uses them as psychological vigilantes to punish various villains who have somehow escaped unscathed from the judicial system. ✥ Team members (called disillusionists) are taught to channel their bad feelings into the villains’ psyches. As the bad guys and gals absorb more and more of each disillusionist’s fears and anxieties, the team members have a "glory hour" in which they feel much better, but the villains feel much worse, to the point that their lives eventually collapse and they must rebuild their essence from the beginning. Thus, the villains are punished—but nonviolently—and turned into good citizens who have learned from their past mistakes. What a concept! No need for prisons or trials or executions or criminal lawyers! ~ Goodreads | Mind Games Protagonist ✥ Justine Jones: Book Cover Blurbs ✤ BOOK ONE—Mind Games (2010): Justine Jones has a secret. A hardcore hypochondriac, she’s convinced a blood vessel is about to burst in her brain. Then, out of the blue, a startlingly handsome man named Packard peers into Justine’s soul and invites her to join his private crime-fighting team. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime deal. With a little of Packard’s hands-on training, Justine can weaponize her neurosis, turning it outward on Midcity’s worst criminals, and finally get the freedom from fear she’s always craved. End of problem. Or is it? In Midcity, a dashing police chief is fighting a unique breed of outlaw with more than human powers. And while Justine’s first missions, including one against a nymphomaniac husband-killer, are thrilling successes, there is more to Packard than meets the eye. Soon, while battling her attraction to two very different men, Justine is plunging deeper into a world of wizardry, eroticism, and cosmic secrets. With Packard’s help, Justine has freed herself from her madness—only to discover a reality more frightening than anyone’s worst fears. ~ Goodreads | Mind Games (The Disillusionists Trilogy, #1) by Carolyn Crane ✤ BOOK TWO—Double Cross (2010): SOME SECRETS COME BACK TO HAUNT. OTHERS COME TO KILL. Justine Jones lived her life as a fearful hypochondriac until she was lured into the web of a mysterious mastermind named Packard, who gifts her with extraordinary mental powers—dooming her to fight Midcity’s shadowy war on paranormal crime in order to find the peace she so desperately craves. But now serial killers with unheard-of skills are terrorizing the most powerful beings in Midcity, including mastermind Packard and his oldest friend and worst enemy, Midcity’s new mayor, who has the ability to bend matter itself to his will. As the body count grows, Justine faces a crisis of conscience as she tests the limits of her new powers and faces an impossible choice between two flawed but brilliant men—one on a journey of redemption, the other descending into a pit of moral depravity. ~ Goodreads | Double Cross (The Disillusionists Trilogy, #2) by Carolyn Crane ✤ BOOK THREE—Head Rush (2011): JUSTINE JONES FACES HER ULTIMATE ENEMY: HERSELF! In an attempt to put her unhappy past behind her, Justine Jones throws herself into nursing school and planning her wedding to Otto Sanchez, the man of her dreams. But something is off. Random details aren’t adding up, and is it her imagination, or are her friends and fiancé keeping secrets from her? And what’s with this strange sense of unease, and her odd new headaches? Justine tries to stay upbeat as Midcity cowers under martial law, sleepwalking cannibals, and a mysterious rash of paranormal copycat violence, but her search for answers leads her into the most dangerous mindgame yet. With the help of unlikely allies, including her paranoid dad and best frenemy Simon, Justine fights her ultimate foe…and unravels the most startling mystery of all. — Product Warnings: This book contains high-speed rollerblade chases, a mysterious green dashboard ornament, a father of the bride in full hazmat gear and a delicious kebab. ~ Goodreads | Head Rush (The Disillusionists Trilogy, #3) by Carolyn Crane Category:Series